


Right the Wrongs

by honeybun, Sabo (Sabou)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Healing, Healthy Relationships, M/M, Past Child Neglect, past emotional abuse, veraverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28190475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeybun/pseuds/honeybun, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sabou/pseuds/Sabo
Summary: Antonio soothes the pain which Grandpa Roma had inflicted on Lovino in his attempt to raise two of his grandsons on his own.
Relationships: South Italy/Spain (Hetalia)
Kudos: 20





	Right the Wrongs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [George deValier](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=George+deValier).



> This story is embedded in George deValier‘s ‚Veraverse‘.
> 
> If you have not read either Bésame Mucho or Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart you might be confused with the references in this story.

It made Lovino roll his eyes when the thought enters his brain, groan and put his head in his hands, rub them against his eyes until he sees stars, tries to forget it.

He doesn’t know why it occurs to him, why it means so much. But there it is, Lovino had tried to stop questioning the odd ways love bound you to others.

It had all begun when he’d tried to put a swing up in the large tree towards the front of the house, Feliciano had bothered him about it incessantly, until he’d given in one afternoon and gone out there himself. 

He’d strung up the rope and was about to sling it over the tallest branch he could, when Antonio called him, ‘Lovino? What are you doing!’ 

His heart had sunk, the thought of being disallowed this, the disappointment in Feliciano’s face and sullen voice, when he hadn’t been able to do anything about it, but- 

‘Would you wait for me? I’ll help you balance it-’ Antonio shuffles outside slowly, wrapped up carefully against the summer breeze. Lovino eyes him warily, sure he’ll be shoved off, told to go elsewhere, let the adults handle this.

‘You can do it, just remember to step back- Ah, yes,  _ there-’ _

Lovino had carefully let his foot fall back as he’d swung the rope, missing its rebound, where Antonio grabbed it carefully with his hand.

‘Good job, Lovi, Feli will be pleased, hm?’ Antonio lets praise rush from his lips like it’s easy, well deserved, and Lovino stands in some disquiet, unsure of what to do now. 

.

It happens again, this time in the kitchen - Lovino mindlessly shedding tomatoes of their skins after they’d boiled, hot in his hands but not boiling anymore, until one, more ripe than the others, explodes, ripe in his hand. He hisses through his teeth, hand still and throbbing.

Antonio is there, suddenly and without fuss, leading Lovino towards the sink and a bowl of cool water, hand brushing away tomato seeds and the piping hot juice from his palm.

‘I can do it-’

‘I know, I know, let me help though,’ Antonio mumbles from beside him.

Laying awake that night Lovino has to wonder, while tossing and turning, why exactly it is this that bothers him. He knows why, really, but it’s a hard thing to admit. He tries to dodge it, think around it, ignore it entirely. However the truth is there. 

Roma wouldn’t have done that.

He’d have snatched the rope from his hands before he’d even had the chance to try, would have put it up himself, reminding everyone that he’d found Lovino trying to put it up, but wasn’t that silly? He’d had to do it himself. Shame and anger would have coursed freely through him. His grandfather’s protectiveness chafing him tenderly. 

Roma would have scolded him, eyebrow raised as if to say, ‘Don’t you know better?’ if he’d have seen the mess he’d made of that one tomato. As if that one thing was evidence enough of his incompetence. 

But no, Antonio had not done that. Fuck- all he’d ever shown him was that he was patient, always waiting, ready for Lovino. He was never made to feel like Antonio was any more than him, that he owed him a debt, no. 

They were equals, Antonio trusted him and Lovino trusted Antonio. As Antonio helped Lovino, he would return the favour, always. 

Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised at it, but each time, these little things would ignite a shard in his chest he hadn’t known was there. An undeveloped tender part of his heart, waiting to be nurtured. Antonio would coax them all out, care for them lovingly, and the next time he’d face Roma he would feel stronger, more confident, more deserving of space next to his grandfather. 

He might never be able to tell him how much this means to him, no. But in those small ways, in letting Antonio right the wrongs that Roma had left strewn about, in a way, to Antonio, this is thanks enough. 


End file.
